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NATHANIEL POLK DESHONG
★ ★ ★
The Southern Diaspora
Nathaniel Polk DeShong descended
from Huguenot immigrants who
settled near the Haw River about a
mile and a half north of here. He
enlisted on June 21, 1861, at 17
years of age under Capt. James W.
Lea “for the War” in the 6th North
Carolina State Troops at Camp
Alamance (5 miles west). A slight
man who handled animals well,
DeShong was detailed as a teamster
and ambulance driver on February
6, 1862. In that capacity, he removed
the wounded from the battlefields
of Antietam, Maryland, and Gettys-burg,
Pennsylvania, and never
forgot their screams and moans.
DeShong returned to the Haw River after being paroled at Appomat-tox
Court House in April 1865. Although his father owned six slaves before
the war, they lived in the house with his family instead of in separate quar-ters,
as was sometimes the case on small farms. When DeShong remarried
in 1865, the former slaves made a rolling pin from a single piece of wood
smoothed with elm bark as a wedding gift.
Like many Southerners during the postwar depression, DeShong
and his second wife, Catherine McRae, headed west to Texas, where he put
his experience with horses to good use in Paris, in Lamar County. He never
forgot, however, the “crystal-clear streams, towering oaks or corn higher
than your head” of Alamance County as he reminisced to his children.
Perhaps inspired by his stories of treating the wounded, some of his descen-dants
entered the field of medicine. His youngest daughter returned “home”
here in 1994, almost 130 years after her father left.
Major funding for this project was provided by the North Carolina Department of Transportation, through the Transportation Enhancement Program of the Federal Transportation Efficiency Act for the 21st Century.
CivilWarTrails.org
40
70
49
85
87
49
62 54
62
87
You Are
Burlington Here
Snow Camp
(Multiple Sites)
Nathaniel Polk DeShong, 1861
Reunion badge, United Confed-erate
Veterans
Former DeShong family slaves, ca. 1890
All images courtesy
Haw River Historical Museum

NATHANIEL POLK DESHONG
★ ★ ★
The Southern Diaspora
Nathaniel Polk DeShong descended
from Huguenot immigrants who
settled near the Haw River about a
mile and a half north of here. He
enlisted on June 21, 1861, at 17
years of age under Capt. James W.
Lea “for the War” in the 6th North
Carolina State Troops at Camp
Alamance (5 miles west). A slight
man who handled animals well,
DeShong was detailed as a teamster
and ambulance driver on February
6, 1862. In that capacity, he removed
the wounded from the battlefields
of Antietam, Maryland, and Gettys-burg,
Pennsylvania, and never
forgot their screams and moans.
DeShong returned to the Haw River after being paroled at Appomat-tox
Court House in April 1865. Although his father owned six slaves before
the war, they lived in the house with his family instead of in separate quar-ters,
as was sometimes the case on small farms. When DeShong remarried
in 1865, the former slaves made a rolling pin from a single piece of wood
smoothed with elm bark as a wedding gift.
Like many Southerners during the postwar depression, DeShong
and his second wife, Catherine McRae, headed west to Texas, where he put
his experience with horses to good use in Paris, in Lamar County. He never
forgot, however, the “crystal-clear streams, towering oaks or corn higher
than your head” of Alamance County as he reminisced to his children.
Perhaps inspired by his stories of treating the wounded, some of his descen-dants
entered the field of medicine. His youngest daughter returned “home”
here in 1994, almost 130 years after her father left.
Major funding for this project was provided by the North Carolina Department of Transportation, through the Transportation Enhancement Program of the Federal Transportation Efficiency Act for the 21st Century.
CivilWarTrails.org
40
70
49
85
87
49
62 54
62
87
You Are
Burlington Here
Snow Camp
(Multiple Sites)
Nathaniel Polk DeShong, 1861
Reunion badge, United Confed-erate
Veterans
Former DeShong family slaves, ca. 1890
All images courtesy
Haw River Historical Museum

NATHANIEL POLK DESHONG
★ ★ ★
The Southern Diaspora
Nathaniel Polk DeShong descended
from Huguenot immigrants who
settled near the Haw River about a
mile and a half north of here. He
enlisted on June 21, 1861, at 17
years of age under Capt. James W.
Lea “for the War” in the 6th North
Carolina State Troops at Camp
Alamance (5 miles west). A slight
man who handled animals well,
DeShong was detailed as a teamster
and ambulance driver on February
6, 1862. In that capacity, he removed
the wounded from the battlefields
of Antietam, Maryland, and Gettys-burg,
Pennsylvania, and never
forgot their screams and moans.
DeShong returned to the Haw River after being paroled at Appomat-tox
Court House in April 1865. Although his father owned six slaves before
the war, they lived in the house with his family instead of in separate quar-ters,
as was sometimes the case on small farms. When DeShong remarried
in 1865, the former slaves made a rolling pin from a single piece of wood
smoothed with elm bark as a wedding gift.
Like many Southerners during the postwar depression, DeShong
and his second wife, Catherine McRae, headed west to Texas, where he put
his experience with horses to good use in Paris, in Lamar County. He never
forgot, however, the “crystal-clear streams, towering oaks or corn higher
than your head” of Alamance County as he reminisced to his children.
Perhaps inspired by his stories of treating the wounded, some of his descen-dants
entered the field of medicine. His youngest daughter returned “home”
here in 1994, almost 130 years after her father left.
Major funding for this project was provided by the North Carolina Department of Transportation, through the Transportation Enhancement Program of the Federal Transportation Efficiency Act for the 21st Century.
CivilWarTrails.org
40
70
49
85
87
49
62 54
62
87
You Are
Burlington Here
Snow Camp
(Multiple Sites)
Nathaniel Polk DeShong, 1861
Reunion badge, United Confed-erate
Veterans
Former DeShong family slaves, ca. 1890
All images courtesy
Haw River Historical Museum